(Art by AmazingPuffHair)
-
The Dazzlings are interesting characters with an interesting, if slightly vague, background.

A great deal of stories have been written about them over the years since their first and (hopefully not)last appearance, and as such there have been a lot of tropes/stereotypes that I've noticed that are frequently used in a good percentage of them. Now of course that's not necessarily a bad thing, but a few stick out as some major groan inducers when I see them done for a variety of reasons.

The purpose of the thread is to share what I personally find annoying in terms of said stereotypes, as well as to facilitate a means of allowing others to share what they find annoying or have noticed. Why? Because it's fun to complain! And also this is an avenue of character discussion, and that's always fun! Plus, I've been wanting to talk about this stuff for a while but just never got around to it.

Now, to any writers, please do not feel as if I am attacking you or your personal way of interpreting or viewing the Dazzlings. That's really not what I want to do. You can write them however you want. These are just my own opinions, and the opinions of others. Half-way through this post I actually kind of started thinking against posting it because I really didn't want to insult anyone, but I figured 'well, it's not really written too in your face or flamey' and decided against it. I don't point to any specific stories or authors at all, and don't plan on it either. This post wasn't even made pointing to anyone or thing specifically, just the things I kind of think are silly.

Adagio
When talking about Adagio and stereotypes, the stereotype that comes to mind is the mommydagio stereotype that I see from time to time. Given that we are talking about the defacto leader of the Dazzlings(I mean heck, they're even named after her), it's not really a surprise that this one has appeared. I really wouldn't even say that it's annoying to me, but I do think it's a tad bit overdone, and sometimes over-exaggerated.

There's stories where she basically babies Aria and Sonata to the point where you start to forget that her sisters are supposedly over a thousand years old(although, the canonicity of that claim is dubious and up to the reader's interpretation unless otherwise stated by the author of the tale).

Her telling Aria and Sonata when to get dressed, when to clean their room, when to bathe, what to wear... It's just kind of silly to me when it gets to that. Being a leader isn't like being a mommy, you know?

Aria
Hooo boy is there a lot I can say about stereotypes regarding her.

The one I am absolutely sick-to-death of though is the Aria is an angry violent butch one. Basically the author takes Aria being understandably annoyed with Sonata and the situation they're in during Rainbow Rocks and interprets that as 'Aria must have massive anger issues' and then takes the fact she has clothes with a punk aesthetic, and then goes, 'well gee she must be an ass-kicking ball of rage!' then pumps these two things up to 1000 and makes it her entire character.

Aria in the first film didn't really come across to me as a violent angry person. She came off more as just sardonic and cynical. If anything, Adagio had more moments of losing her temper than Aria did. Such as the scene where Adagio grabs her by the jacket and gets in her face.

There's been stories where Aria just immediately starts punching and kicking everyone she sees, stories where Aria is written like an idiot that never thinks with anything but her fists... I dunno, it just seems like an unimaginative and generic way of looking at her to me.

The stories with the best Aria, to me at least, are the ones that portray her as somewhat of a rebel without a cause who while not outwardly feminine, still carries a feminine side to her.

Stories such as DWK's classic Welcome to the Show, or SkyCatcherEQ's Diamond in the Rough are examples of that.

This stereotype isn't bad in of itself; I really liked for example I-A-M's badass Siren warrior Aria in his Rules of Engagement was amazing, and Aria kind of going feral in Tethered-Angel's excellent short story, Criminal Behavior.

But the thing is - I liked it in those two because there was an actual setup and reason for Aria being that way in those two stories that were more than just 'Aria is violent and angry because she was understandably annoyed in Rainbow Rocks,' which is really the core of why I dislike this portrayal. Rarely if ever is there any justification for her being that way in the stories I'm talking about.

Sonata
The number one stereotype that I completely loathe has to go to Sonata, and I am of course talking about the portrayal of Sonata being an innocent child in an adult's body. Usually this Sonata is accompanied by a mommadagio in the story she appears in.

It's Sonata's airheaded nature being pumped up to 1000 and her being a childlike dingbat that doesn't understand anything at all, needs to be told when to go to bed, stuff like that. Sonata in Rainbow Rocks definitely wasn't portrayed as being smart, but she wasn't portrayed as being a womanchild either.

This one also comes up in a lot of scenarios where Sonata is made out to be 'the only good or redeemable Siren' because... why?

This one is actually kind of rare, but it's not rare to where it doesn't make me roll my eyes when it shows up. It seems to arise when the author looks at Sonata's air-headed ways and then conflates that with being an innocent little angel that only did wrong things because her sisters told her to. Sonata is just as capable as being bad as her sisters are. Just look at the scene with Sunset and them in the hallway if you need an example of that.

So what do you guys think? What bothers you in Siren stories when it comes to their characters? What do you think is overdone? Hopefully this post wasn't too long-winded or hard to follow, I am getting kind of sleepy.

And again, please don't feel as if I'm attacking anyone - that's not my intention at all. I apologize if it came across that way.

7452258 But there are so many!

Adagio being too motherly
Adagio being too slutty
Adagio being too proud
Adagio being quick to anger
Adagio being helpless
Adagio being short

Aria being a tsundere
Aria having a high opinion of Sonata
Aria being just as dumb as Sonata
Aria being a professional gamer

Sonata being too smart
Sonata being too dumb
Sonata being any less evil than the other two
Tacos

The
7452258
I agree with sonata, not to say she’s not enjoyable to write about with Octavia (long story how that ship happened) but while I do fall more into the ‘she’s the most good one’ I do despise and try to steer clear of the dumb annoying airhead

You know what really grinds my fucking gears. Tsundere's. I fucking love a good tsundere character, the problem is that nobody knows what the fuck a good tsundere is, and I've needed to go on this rant.

So, a tsundere is someone who denies love, maybe talks a bit negatively to the one they like, and is overall dismissive and reflective about their love while still being adorably obvious about it. A bad tsundere is someone who gets physical, calls you an idiot, and decides to be and overall bitch to the point where I have to wonder what the writer thinks a tsundere is and how badly they screw it up. There are a few good Aria tsundere stories that are a-fucking-dorable and I love her in them, but then you have stories where she's a violent psychopath that beats the protagonist's face in and does everything short of telling them to go kill themselves. That's not a tsundere, that's a violent person who isn't cute or adorably sensitive about their emotions.

If I, the protagonist, say something that might allude to me knowing about their feelings for the character, the response should be a deflection, aa light insult, and a reaffirmation that, under no circumstances, am I right about my guess. It's fucking cute to listen to them dance around their emotions like a boxer, it's not cute to read about them locking me in a headlock and actually strangling me for making an assumption that the writer wants us to interpret. They should brush off my comments, make a firm statement that I'm wrong, and then move on from a topic that they're clearly uncomfortable with because they're secretly afraid of their thoughts being revealed and their mountain of lies crumbling on top of them along with an anxiety of an inevitable denial that they think the protagonist will deliver if they ever confess. It's cute because characters like Aria are trying to maintain a person they think the character likes while also acting modestly indifferent to how that person feels. Oh, she got a new belt because protag-kun said he liked the color velvet, well it just so happened to be really cheap, not that she's a cheapskate or anything, it was just a usually exspensive belt that was on sale that she thought she could resell later but decided against it because it was really nice. The fact that it's his favorite color is just a coincidence, in fact, she forgot that he mentioned his favorite color as soon as he said it, it's not like he knows her favorite color. What? Oh, he actually does know her favorite color, well that's cool, she won't outwardly make a big deal out of it, it's just a random bit of information that he chose to remember when he should be focusing on more important things like school. Oh, he just said that she was important. Well, he's important too, as a friend, and only as a friend. Yup, best friends, friends till the end, and all that jazz, the best of friends and only friends.

THAT'S FUCKING CUTE!

7452258
Hmm, the problem with this kind of question is that for every trope I can think of, I can usually point to at least ine example I liked, or at least didn't mind. Like little ball of rage Aria or taco obsessed Sonata is fine, if it's in like a one-shot comedy story. And I am a lot more flexible than some on what kind of characterization I enjoy haha. But all that saud, here's what I can think of...

Adagio:
Oddly specific, but I hate when writers change her hair. It's dumb, I know haha. I don't mind styling or whatever, but I really can't stand it when writers give her really short hair or have her shave her head for whatever reason.
Another purely subjective annoyance, I hate when writers give her big boobs. Idk sue me.

Aria:
Now, I love a tsundere, and I love tsundaria. But I hate needy, openly clingy tsundaria. Her just being shy about opening up and masking it with anger or bravado is fine, I love it. But needy and simpering are not things that should apply to her.
Oh, also people that have her use kiddy swears. If you don't want swears in the story that's fine, but using words like "dang it" or "shoot" just really pulls me out of it when talking about someone like Aria. Who is she trying to watch her language for?

Sonata:
Again, I'm fine with most one note elements, they can work really well for comedy. It the taco thing overdone? Yeah. But I don't really mind. But I hate the secret genius, idiot/savant thing some people do. She is... painfully stupid, in the movie, tbh. I can buy her being more capable than she seems, but I cab't buy her explaining chaos theory and theoretical physics.
Again, except as a joke. I've seen that angle spun well for similar characters. But it's not really one I've enjoyed for her.

For all 3, them being overly eager to be reformed. Like I don't mind them making peace with the m7 to some degree, but I prefer them keeping their agancy and not becoming complete friendship puppets. Also, then being ponies or turning into ponies when they cross the portal. Like come on, at least make them sea ponies haha.

Idk that's what I can think of right now, I'm in sleepbrain mode.

7452258
Like Tethered said, it feels a little weird to single out particular tropes, since it's almost always really the poor execution of them that bothers me, and it's always more interesting to me to take an idea that's usually bad and try to puzzle out a way for it to work.

But the one that I think does put me off even if there's not necessarily anything with it is slutty Adagio. Just, like... how do you look at someone who sets out to make the world adore her and decide she'll throw herself at whoever's nearby and slightly willing? It just seems so beneath her to me, and it's a difficult thing for me to really get invested in these days.

Sonata being childish is an interesting one, because I actually really like the sound of it, but not in the way I think most people use it. Sonata in We Are What We Are is, I would say, somewhat more childish than the other two... in that she's a petty, conniving bitch who doesn't have any problem screwing people she doesn't like out of a job. And I think it could be fun and different to explore a Sonata who is quite childish, in the sense that she doubles down when the other two have the good sense to at least admit defeat, call it quits and move on, while she's more keen on exacting trifling revenge.

I guess that leaves me coming up with one for Aria. Um. Hmm. I guess this goes for her and Adagio: I feel like there's a tendency for those two to mellow out a lot when they "reform" or whatever. And to me that's just, like... kind of sucking a lot of the fun out of then? I quite like the idea that, yeah, they bicker and snipe a lot and actually kind of enjoy butting heads but that doesn't mean they're not friends--'cause like, I dunno how it is for other people, I say stuff to my friends that could come across as pretty mean-spirited to a stranger, because I trust people I've been talking to for a while to know not to take everything I say at face value.

And I've seen stories where part of Adagio's growth is literally she stops snarking at Aria and Sonata as much and I'm like... no, screw you author, just because you don't like to have fun doesn't mean your characters need to be the same way. So her and Adagio, I feel like they lose a lot if you take away some of that abrasive edge, and it seems popular-ish to do away with that in siren reformation stories.

7452258
Tacos.

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/436507/thinking-about-tacos

7452525
You know that is something I neglected to mention - what about stories where Sonata's only train of thought seems to center around tacos? Surely there's some other food she likes, such as burritos!

7452931
Sonata would argue about what is or isn't a sandwich.

7452932
She'd ask if cereal with milk is considered a soup or not.

7452969
We are on exactly the same wavelength.